A GALLANT nurse who has helped save two people's lives is poised to be rewarded for his heroics.

Daring Dino Christodoulou has been nominated for a bravery award by police after he fearlessly came to the aid of a woman shot in the stomach at point-blank range.

Margaret Sillitoe was lying bruised and battered in King Street, Whalley, when Dino stepped in to try to disarm the offender.

And just months after his first display of courage, the 32-year-old successfully spent two hours talking a potential suicide victim down from a multi-storey car park.

Bachelor Dino, a social therapy nurse at Park Lee Hospital's stroke rehabilitation ward, said today that he believed in putting his "faith into action." The devout Christian said: "I don't see myself as a hero, but I like to help people. I suppose I am a bit of a Good Samaritan."

Dino, who lives at Grimshaw Park, Blackburn, was transferring patients by ambulance when he saw stricken Mrs Sillitoe slumped on the floor last March. She had been shot and beaten with a .22 rifle.

He leapt from the vehicle and intervened by grabbing the offender's weapon.

He said: "I received a battering in the struggle.

"But I couldn't believe that there were so many people driving past doing nothing."

Lancashire Police confirmed that they have nominated him for a bravery award.

Intrepid Dino's courage shone through again when a young girl was threatening to throw herself off the Ainsworth Street car park in Blackburn.

"I spent two hours on the edge of the roof with a policeman trying to coax her down," he said.

"It was awful because I had never been in that situation. We took it in turns to talk to her and eventually she came down."

Dino, who moved to Blackburn from London eight years ago, gives up his time to work for hospital radio in Blackburn and is a hospital chaplaincy visitor. He is also a church warden at St Barnabas' Church, Blackburn. A friend said of Dino: "He would do anything for anybody. He even won £10 on the National Lottery and gave it to somebody who needed some petrol."

Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust nurse manager Anne Asher said: "We are very proud of him and he makes a marvellous contribution to the directorate."

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